Afternoons
by KomodoDags
Summary: On a slow and unusually boring afternoon, Benny attempts to teach Emmet how to speak some Latin. One-shot. /R&r!/


In some cases, the television helped dull boredom on a few afternoons in Emmet's household; however, he found that this time it did little but intensify it.

Hours of various facts about black holes, stars, and the intricate workings of a real spaceship had him sitting back, propping his chin up with his fist. He glanced over, concerned, as his guest for the day, Benny, was leaning forward in his seat, eyes locked on the television with keen interest.

Every monotonous detail seemed to excite him further and Emmet somehow didn't have the heart to just turn it off. He wanted to press hard enough into the couch to vanish and go find something else to do, but then again; what else _was_ there to do? Wyldstyle was having her own day to herself, no holiday was coming up that he could prepare for, and every movie worth watching in theatres he had already gone to see earlier in the week.

There were only two things he could do: Sit here and try his hardest to be interested for as long as the marathon of 'Space and Things Related' lasted, or ease the question of stopping and doing something else onto Benny.

He casually yawned and stretched to capture the spaceman's attention, "Hey, would you look at that? We've been watching this for over two hours. Man, the time sure does fly when you're having fun; how about we give it a break for now?"

"Aw, but they're just getting to the good part!" The fair hair on his head bounced as he popped off the couch to point at the screen.

Emmet winced, trying not to be a heel, "Yeah, but…the show's gonna still be on later tonight. How about this; if we can't find anything else better to do, we'll watch some more?"

"Mm…ok, deal." He floated away from the couch, a friendly smile appearing on his face, "So, what now, huh? Oh, I know! We could review what we just watched!"

"Uh. That's a definite possibility! But how about we…" He glanced around desperately for inspiration, and, finding none, spat out the first thing that came to mind, "Bake something!" It wasn't the worst idea he had come up with, for sure.

Benny slumped just a little, starting to rotate upside-down in the air, "But…" He bit his lip, "I…don't know how to bake, or even cook…"

"Oh!" The construction worker scrambled for a response, feeling terrible, "W-well, how about I teach you how to? I mean, I could tell you something I can't do that you can as well and you could teach me, too!"

"Hey…yeah, that's a great idea! Ok, ok, what's something you can't do?"

"Hm." He frowned, "I dunno…what's something you _can_ do that most people can't?"

"Well…." Benny twirled and set his feet firmly on the ground, "I…I can speak a little Latin."

"Latin? Well, that's certainly…different. Alright, it'll work!" He stood and paced towards the kitchen, 'I've always wanted to learn a little bit of a foreign language, anyway. C'mon, let's get started!" After pulling a few bowls out of the cupboards and a sack of flour, he was surprised to find that Benny had not followed him.

Tentatively, he peeked into the living room to find his friend looking extremely nervous, "Hey, Benny? Are you coming?"

"Yeah, but…" He ran a hand through his hair, "I was just wondering if maybe I could teach you my thing first?"

"Uh, sure?" Was Benny scared of baking or what? Emmet put everything he was holding on the table, a little confused but fine with switching things up a little. He walked back into the living room, "So, where do we start?"

Benny brightened considerably, "Well…the basics!" He pushed a chair towards him and let him sit in it, "Let's start with something simple, like, uh…'_ego_'."

Emmet cleared his throat, "_Ego."_

"Great! Now try '_ego sicut'_."

"Si…sicet?"

He shook his head, "No, get the 'ute' at the end."

"_Sicut_?" The unfamiliar words felt strange and a bit silly on his tongue, "_Ego sicut_?"

Benny seemed to be growing more and more eager, "Mm-hm! Just one more and you'll have an entire sentence! '_Stellae_'."

Oh, boy, "Stelle. No, wait, Steel…er, stellie? Ugh, I'm terrible at this." The spaceman's words held the original accent, while Emmet was becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that his words were just as blank as the speaking of the narrator of, 'Space and Things Related.'

"No, no! You're doing fine! Just remember that it has more of a 'ly' sound that a 'le' at the end. Stellae!"

"_Stellae?_ Ok…now I do the whole thing?"

Benny nodded encouragingly, "Don't worry if you don't get it on the first try."

"_Ego…sicut…stellea."_ Choppy, but it somehow made him feel happy that he had completed what Benny had said was a sentence in Latin, "How's that?"

"Wonderful! We'll work on the accent later. For now, we just need you to remember the words and how they sound." He began to drift off of the floor again, beaming proudly.

Emmet rolled his eyes up, "One thing, though; what exactly does that mean?"

"Oh! It means, 'I like stars'! And-and if someone asks you what you do for a living, you can tell them, _ego sum aedificator_! And they could say, if they spoke Latin, '_mira_'! And you would ask, '_quod est opus vestrum negotium?', _to which he'd say-"

"Benny!"

He looked at the construction worker, a little startled, "What?"

"Let's…just stick with the basics for now, Ok?" He smiled, the thought of learning to say all that fluently making his head throb.

"Oh, right! Sorry, I got a little carried away." He tilted his head, "You wanna continue?"

Emmet stood and pointed over his shoulder, "Why don't we move on to my lessons for a bit first?"

"Yeah, I guess…it is…your turn." Benny drifted forward a bit, "Promise I won't get burnt? Or be lit on fire in any way?"

"I Promise."


End file.
